


time and time again

by WhimsicalSparky



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:55:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25883191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhimsicalSparky/pseuds/WhimsicalSparky
Summary: because love means many things for them, expresses itself in many ways between them.— lenmiku. / drabble compilation.
Relationships: Hatsune Miku/Kagamine Len
Kudos: 4





	1. movie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> len only seems to suggest horror movies for movie night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the fourth time im doing one of these, third time for lenmeeks. but meHHH let's try fluff again bc it's been years, i cant fluff im so sure audjdjksjf tbh this is more dorkiness than fluff but knowing myself it's the same so let's gooooo

"Do you have a single suggestion that isn't a horror movie?"

They've been picking up DVDs one after another for an hour, now. Miku groans every time she's faced with another horror movie, because Len couldn't bring something that isn't a horror movie. Some of these aren't even for his age, and she questions how his parents allow him to watch them.

Actually no, they wouldn't let him. He fetched them without their concern, she's sure of it.

"Well," he starts. Pauses to think. Gives up. He hastily picks up DVDs at random and checks the genres on the back cover. "Uh, I'm sure there's something here."

"Honestly, I should tell your parents." It's teasing, but Len still shivers at the thought of them finding out what he's watching. Miku lifts an eyebrow at a DVD, its cover on shades of grayscale and crude drawings of children. "Kagome Kagome? Isn't that about an orphanage where children are experimented on?"

"Yeah! I heard that it's getting a reboot in some months so it motivated me to find the original. It's old but a classic!"

She taps the rating on the back cover at him. "Len."

"Oh, shut it. Do I look like the kind of guy who fawns over romantic crap? That's Kaito, not me."

She can't help the smile creeping up on her face. Len gravitates towards horror like Earth rotates around the sun, which is odd to anyone else because he is sunshine and mirth and kindness incarnate and freaks out over spiders on the walls and frogs in the bathroom.

If anything, this interest is what inspired him to join the drama club, doing the makeup and a bit of costume design and often taking minor roles that couldn't be filled. Not to mention his Halloween costumes and contributions to class projects.

So Miku humors him a bit more—she asks about some movies that are unfamiliar to her just to see his perking up at a mention and rambling about positive and negative points. She learns about A Fox's Wedding's confusing plot that has almost nothing to do with the original story, Disease Princess' backstage drama causing a delay on the reboot's release, Onibi's surprisingly good quality despite its low budget, and how Dark Woods Circus has four different versions and Len owns three of them.

That is until Len finds one movie and beams. Miku blinks at the title: Mercy & Pathos. It doesn't strike any familiarity. "Ah yes, this one! It's pretty tame in comparison to most movies I know and it's very, very good. It's just horror because vampires and stuff."

"That's a curious title."

She stares a little longer at the cover: an orange and dark blue background with dark smudges for buildings in the distance, a nun in white and gold and a man dressed in dark colors, the Mercy part of the title glimmering in gold and white whilst the Pathos is colored red and black. It calls her attention at how the nun holds a teacup filled to the brim with a red liquid and the man holds a red rosary.

Len tilts his head, as if considering. Well, certainly he's seen stranger titles before.

"It's originally two stories—Sister's Mercy and Vampire's Pathos, if I'm not wrong—but the team couldn't make them work separately, so instead merged both. And in my opinion, they did a good job at it," he chuckles and stops when he feels her gaze. "Not a fan of vampire movies?"

"It's not that. Just reminding myself of how my friend is a nerd."

"I'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much. So you wanna?"

"Sure, if it's not those gorn stuff you're so used to."

"Oh no, don't you dare use storytelling tropes on me!" This startles a laugh out of her.


	2. headpat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's been years since the last time miku patted len on the head.

Len used to love when Miku patted him on the head. When they were kids, he would lay his head on her lap for a headpat and then smile happily when she gladly gave them. He was like a little puppy back then: small, sweet and easy to please.

It's still hard to process how Len changed over these eight years since his disappearance.

She doesn't know how long she stares at him gnawing on some meat down to the bone, sharp teeth for scouring, tongue for licking off the juices on his jaw. Meiko will scream at him for making a unnecessary mess in his ferocity, for staining the carpet again.

But it's this what grounds her to reality. Len—her childhood friend, perhaps her crush at some point before he disappeared, and now they're trying to make something out of a bond broken eight years ago—all corded muscle and anger instead of paper-thin skin and bones, centimeters away from her, eating away like the werewolf he really is.

Although she misses when he was an open book and smiled as easily as it was to breathe.

He finally turns to her with a raised brow. "You were staring at me for a good while. What is it?"

Miku considers; it feels awkward to say that she misses patting him on the head and seeing him smile. Heck, he's not a child any longer—not that boy any longer—and she wonders if he would take it as an offense if she offered to pat him. Sometimes she almost cowers under his steely gaze before remembering that she is a Hatsune, who stands tall in face of madness-inducing abominations, and he is still Len beneath the anger and the scars.

She flinches at Len's nail scratching lightly on the fabric of her jacket's sleeves as he pokes her. He's frowning, annoyed. The remaining bone he was gnawing on is thrown on the table.

She sighs. "Okay, don't judge but… I was thinking of patting you. Like how I used to. I miss doing that."

"Mm."

He closes his eyes. It's almost the same face he would give when he asked headpats, but it looks wrong on him now because there is a jagged scar on his forehead where a patch of hair is flared white and a couple of scratches around his nose and cheeks.

Miku almost hesitates. "Would you let me?"

"I don't see why not. I trust you."

There it is—the part of him untainted by the passage of time and whatever he had to face to survive. The part reminding her of that sweet boy. For a brief moment he is an open book.

His hair is surprisingly soft, her nails catching tangled strands amongst flaxen curls. At some point as she pats him, he opens his eyes and gazes past her with a slight frown. She pauses when he says, "Wait," and wipes his jaw clean with the back of his hand, rubbing it on his pants afterwards, before lying his head on her lap—oh.

It's just like he used to do. She smiles and pats him. He doesn't resemble himself when younger at all; all changes make him something else, something more. There's something nice in how he trusts her with this side of him.

"I forgot how this felt," he mumbles. He looks relaxed, staring at the ceiling without the ever-present tension on his shoulders. "It's… nice? Yeah."

"You made it sound like a question."

"Well, excuse me for not receiving headpats like these in years." Miku raises a brow at him. Like these? But Len shrugs off the concern and explains, "I mean, they had reason. A form of praise. And once I turned seventeen, I stopped receiving any at all."

"That's rather sad," she blurts out, then flushes.

Len's expression doesn't change. "I wasn't a pup any longer so it didn't matter. And besides, those were different than yours. Your pats have no prompting, as if I deserve all the praise for just existing."

"Well, you do," and it's the truth, not an easy answer to flatter him. And she keeps patting him.

Miku runs her fingers through his hair and Len hums. It's a sweet time that will never make up for the lost years, but more than compensating for them is creating new memories, now that they're together again.

She plays with the white patch hanging lazily on the side of his forehead and traces down the scar with her index finger. The scar stops a bit before his left eyebrow.

"Will you tell me what caused this?" She doesn't demand answers. Those will come in the right time and it's not today, not when it's been some weeks and memories of that night they'd seen each other are still so fresh in their minds.

Len yawns loudly and she winces at the stench of his breath. "One day. I'm tired."

"Lazy. Your mouth stinks."

He huffs but doesn't protest.


End file.
